Future of the Palace of Fine Arts? Mystery reigns

One of the seven original fireplaces used to heat the building during the PanamaÐPacific International Exposition in 1915 can be seen Inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015. less

One of the seven original fireplaces used to heat the building during the PanamaÐPacific International Exposition in 1915 can be seen Inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015.

Inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Image 3 of 14

Visitors relax as they experience a light & sound therapy called PSiO mind booster inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space, San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015. Original stone angels from the 1915 Panamaâ€“Pacific International Exposition are displayed inside the building. less

Visitors relax as they experience a light & sound therapy called PSiO mind booster inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space, San Francisco, ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Image 4 of 14

The Palace of Fine Arts, designed by Bernard Maybeck for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition, is a favored destination of Bay Area residents and visitors. The exterior is a protected landmark. The shed behind it -- in part the former home of the Exploratorium -- is the subject of a development competition that has seven teams in the running. less

The Palace of Fine Arts, designed by Bernard Maybeck for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition, is a favored destination of Bay Area residents and visitors. The exterior is a protected landmark. The ... more

Photo: John King, The Chronicle

Image 5 of 14

The Palace of Fine Arts, designed by Bernard Maybeck for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition, is a favored destination of Bay Area residents and visitors. The exterior is a protected landmark. The shed behind it -- in part the former home of the Exploratorium -- is the subject of a development competition that has seven teams in the running. less

The Palace of Fine Arts, designed by Bernard Maybeck for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition, is a favored destination of Bay Area residents and visitors. The exterior is a protected landmark. The ... more

Photo: John King, The Chronicle

Image 6 of 14

Bernard Maybeck's Palace of Fine Arts is one of the Bay Area's most romantic buildings. The surprising element is, how up, it has a rugged power as well.

Bernard Maybeck's Palace of Fine Arts is one of the Bay Area's most romantic buildings. The surprising element is, how up, it has a rugged power as well.

Photo: John King

Image 7 of 14

Bernard Maybeck's Palace of Fine Arts is one of the Bay Area's most romantic buildings. The surprising element is, how up, it has a rugged power as well.

Bernard Maybeck's Palace of Fine Arts is one of the Bay Area's most romantic buildings. The surprising element is, how up, it has a rugged power as well.

Photo: John King

Image 8 of 14

Exposed ducting can be seen Inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015.

Exposed ducting can be seen Inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Image 9 of 14

Inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015.

Inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Image 10 of 14

One of the original angel statues from the PanamaÐPacific International Exposition in 1915 can be seen Inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015. less

One of the original angel statues from the PanamaÐPacific International Exposition in 1915 can be seen Inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Image 11 of 14

The east entrance into the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015, in San Francisco, Calif.

The east entrance into the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015, in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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A metal sculpture by Michael Christian titled, "Home" is seen inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015. less

A metal sculpture by Michael Christian titled, "Home" is seen inside the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Sat. ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Huge skylights light up the interior of the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015.

Huge skylights light up the interior of the Palace of Fine Arts building where the current tenant The Innovation Hanger occupies the space in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Sat. June 27, 2015.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Bernard Maybeck did this tempura painting of the Palace of Fine Arts in 1914, the year before the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at which the Palace debuted. From the collection of Cherry Maybeck Nittler. less

Bernard Maybeck did this tempura painting of the Palace of Fine Arts in 1914, the year before the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at which the Palace debuted. From the collection of Cherry Maybeck ... more

Photo: From "Bernard Maybeck: Architect

Future of the Palace of Fine Arts? Mystery reigns

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The Palace of Fine Arts is one of those buildings that is easy to picture and impossible to pin down.

There’s the Palace of postcards and tour buses, the fabled concoction by Bernard Maybeck that cradles a lagoon with ornate columns and a sculpture-clad rotunda. And then, oh yes, there’s the curved shell attached to it in back — a vast space of no real architectural merit except for the gaunt structural steel trusses.

But the shed is inseparable from Maybeck’s visual drama, so it’s no surprise that seven developers are wooing San Francisco’s Recreation and Park Commission for the right to restore and operate the 126,000 square feet that held the Exploratorium science museum for 44 years. Judging by the evidence presented last week at the first public open house, the teams have only one thing in common: Nobody’s really quite sure what to do.

Two proposals include hotels. Two are athletic facilities. One emphasizes the performing arts, while another would be a museum about the Bay Area. The seventh includes retail space for “regenerative commerce,” a yoga center and “a therapeutic destination spa.”

In other words, the range is wide and the details are vague. The costs are high, since any tenant is required to invest roughly $10 million in building upgrades. But the structure itself is so unusual, say city officials, that no other approach makes sense.

“Our responsibility as stewards of the Palace is to make sure that it’s around for generations to come,” said Cassandra Costello, Rec and Park’s project manager for the competition. “It deserves active uses that honor its legacy.”

This year is the 100th birthday of the Palace, which rises at the edge of the Marina, nestled against the Presidio and the approach to Doyle Drive and the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s the only remaining piece of the landscape created for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, intended as a temporary structure but retained by popular demand while everything else was torn down at the exposition’s end.

Repurposed repeatedly

Since then, Maybeck’s vision of “modified melancholy” has been rebuilt twice and is cherished as one of San Francisco’s few unquestioned architectural icons. The shed spent decades holding everything from tennis courts to a telephone book dispensary before Frank Oppenheimer conceived the Exploratorium and opened it in 1969.

Now the Exploratorium has an expansive home on the Embarcadero. The Palace has a short-term tenant, the Innovation Hangar, as well as a 960-seat theater at the south end dating to 1970. There’s also an exhibition by the California Historical Society related to the 1915 exposition.

Last winter, Rec and Park cast the net for conceptual proposals, emphasizing that teams must be able to restore the building’s historic features and ensure public access to its central gallery while opening it to the rotunda and lagoon. Two other requirements: The proposal must be “financially viable” and — this is parkland, after all — there must be a recreational aspect to the offerings.

Workaday concepts

Two proposals fit the last qualification without question, though not with the grandeur associated with the Palace and its origins.

One is from the Bay Club, which has 26 private facilities but here would offer day passes as well as memberships for access to the likes of basketball courts and workout space. The other is from Bladium, which converted a former air hangar in Alameda to uses that include indoor sports fields.

By contrast, two other proposals use hotel spaces as their economic engine. Such space isn’t mentioned in the request for proposals, though it’s also not banned.

The Maybeck Center at the Palace of Fine Arts would blend science and history exhibitions with a restored theater and a boutique hotel of 125 to 150 rooms. The recreational use would be “wellness and fitness facilities open to visitors and neighbors.”

Equity Community Builders, a developer that has worked in the Presidio, would line the curve with arts activities and food-related outposts a la the Ferry Building while placing 175 hotel rooms in new mezzanine levels above.

The other three proposals include classroom activities and similar functions in a broad recreational sense.

The San Francisco Museum at the Presidio would blend interactive exhibits on the history and cultures of the region, while also having craft spaces for youth, a lecture series and a restored theater.

A new organization called the Arcadium proposes what it calls “a premier arts space, destination market hall and holistic wellness pavilion,” along with events space and a spa.

Food haven

The final proposal, the Center for Global Arts and Cultures, emphasizes an enlarged theater as a venue for live performances, along with rehearsal space and an “international cuisines pavilion” — which, since one team member is Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters, presumably would be more than a food court.

By November, Costello said, the Rec and Park Commission hopes to agree on a list of finalists that would be asked to submit full proposals. The target date to select the winning team is next spring.

John King is The San Francisco Chronicle’s urban design critic. E-mail: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron